A traveler usually does not like to carry multiple power adapters for the various electronic devices (e.g., cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs, media players) that the user may carry, in addition, depending on the length of the trip, the batteries of many such portable devices do not last for the entire trip. Many such devices have rechargeable batteries. At least some such devices can be charged from an external port, such as a universal serial bus (USB), of a computer when the computer is powered on and operational. Turning the computer on merely to charge an external device is time consuming and cumbersome.